Patients paying with plastic find themselves in debt
The latest issue of Consumer Reports looks at how some patients, after being encouraged and sometimes pressured to use their credit cards to pay for medical expenses, are now facing debt. The July report, “Overdose of Debt,” says consumer credit businesses such as GE Money, Citigroup and Chase are pushing risky credit for financing medical procedures. According to the report, plastic is playing an increasing role in paying for these procedures, with the price tag currently at $45 billion and estimated to increase to $150 billion by 2015.
AAFP launches initiative to promote medical home
The American Academy of Family Physicians’ $8 million practice redesign initiative, TransforMED, will become a limited liability corporation, wholly owned by the AAFP. TransforMED is expected to offer support and consultation services to primary care physicians and health systems that want to transform their medical practices into patient-centered medical homes. TransforMED, first introduced in April 2006, launched a two-year national demonstration project to test the feasibility of the patient-centered medical home model of care.
Brothers, PA charged in $110M healthcare fraud
Three Miami-area brothers who allegedly financed 11 “corrupt” HIV infusion clinics and a physician’s assistant who worked at those clinics have been charged in a $110 million HIV infusion fraud scheme. Federal agencies contend that from January 2001 to November 2004, Carlos and Luis Benitez conspired to submit approximately $110 million in false and fraudulent claims to the Medicare program for HIV infusion services allegedly provided at 11 HIV infusion clinics that they owned and controlled.
Aetna ranked No. 1 in dealings with physicians
Aetna ranks No. 1 in business dealings with physicians, according to athenahealth’s PayerView rankings. Among other performance criteria, athenahealth found that the insurer pays claims faster than any other national payer. Last year’s No. 1 payer was CIGNA Healthcare. Athenahealth, which provides Web-based services for physician practices, and Physicians Practice, a practice management journal for physicians, released the third annual PayerView Rankings in late May. This year’s rankings used athenahealth claims performance data from more than 12,000 medical providers representing more than 30 million medical charge lines in 2007.